Jeon Chae-eun Leads New Korean Film About Grief and Memory

Jeon Chae-eun is the lead in Scenes of Loss (상실의 장면), a new Korean film that began principal photography in Jeju Island on October 1, 2026. The casting was confirmed on October 15, and the project is already one to watch — not because of hype, but because of what Jeon Chae-eun has been quietly building toward.

She debuted in the 2020 film Dol-mengi (Stone) and has since appeared in dramas including The Devil Judge, Little Women, Uncle Samsik, and A Week Before I Die — a run of projects that spans prestige cable, streaming originals, and theatrical releases. Her lead role in Ideal Family earned a spot at the 27th Jeonju International Film Festival, which is where the industry started paying closer attention. She's the kind of actor who tends to be the most interesting person in any scene she's in, even when she's not the biggest name on the poster.

In Scenes of Loss, she plays Seong-gyeong, a high school student carrying the weight of a last promise made to a friend who has died. The film's central story follows Eun-chae, an older sister who returns to her childhood home — a demolition-zone neighborhood — to search for a bracelet, the only remaining keepsake of her younger sister Chae-eun, who died suddenly. Eun-chae's search leads her to Seong-gyeong, the last person who spent time with Chae-eun before she died. What unfolds is a quiet excavation of guilt, memory, and the shape grief takes when it has nowhere to go.

The three leads divide the emotional weight carefully. Choi Ye-eun plays Eun-chae, the older sister whose grief has frozen her daily life — the source describes her performance as restraint holding deep sorrow in place. Newcomer Lee Tae-eun takes on the role of the younger sister Chae-eun, described as bringing a mysterious quality and emotional depth to a character who exists largely in memory and absence. It's a structure that puts three women at the center of a story about what the people left behind do with the space a person leaves.

The launch poster — released alongside the casting announcement — leans into the film's emotional register: soft, spreading light against cool shadow, a figure lying still on a sofa with eyes closed, another silhouette bleeding in from the light. The calligraphy title logo and deep blue-green palette signal something closer to a mood piece than a conventional grief drama. Scenes of Loss is set for a 2027 theatrical release.